


Day 19: Asphyxiation

by Aelaer



Series: Whumptober 2019 [19]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: But the general audience version, Friendship, Gen, Minor Injuries, Tentacle Monsters, Whumptober 2019, not the E-rated version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 04:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21220721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelaer/pseuds/Aelaer
Summary: "Stop trying to choke me!" Stephen shouted at the Tentacle Monster of the Week as he shielded himself once again. It had already gotten him once, and he was not letting it get him again. "I just need you to gohome. You can't eat people here!"





	Day 19: Asphyxiation

**Author's Note:**

> I started to feel really guilty on beating up on poor Stephen like, every day (I'm sorry Stephen. It's the prompts' faults) so I tried to make this one a little less brutal so he can have a bit of a breather… before the next week of prompts. Almost all of which were not great for him. So here's a small little blurb that's more light-hearted in tone.

Out of all the things that Stephen beat back into their own dimensions, the tentacle monsters were the absolute worst. That wasn't to say that there weren't much worse creatures and entities out there, because of course there were.

The thing with tentacle monsters, though, is that they almost always tried to choke him first and foremost. Whether it was because they knew that cutting off oxygen was an excellent way to subdue him or whether it was just an easy target compared to the rest of his body he didn't know, but it was honestly annoying.

And he wasn't even attempting to kill the creatures the majority of the time, either! Here he was, trying to encourage them back into portals that spit them out in their home dimension, and here they were trying to asphyxiate him. Rude.

"Stop trying to choke me!" he shouted at the Tentacle Monster of the Week as he shielded himself once again. It had already gotten him once, and he was not letting it get him again. "I just need you to go _ home_. You can't eat people here!"

The tentacle monster wasn't terribly inclined to agree, but eventually he got the best of it. As the portal shut closed, he realized that _ shit _, he was late to his lunch with Christine.

He honestly had no idea why Christine tolerated him at all, never mind wanted to remain friends, after the way he treated her Before, but she was interested to keep in touch, which helped keep something resembling normalcy in his very not-normal life. After Dormammu a couple months ago, normalcy was— it helped. It definitely helped.

"Sorry I'm late," he said in greeting as he slipped in the seat in the booth at the cafe, ten minutes later than planned. Glamour (possibly his most favorite everyday spell) cleaned up his post-tentacle-monster-fighting look and put him in everyday street clothes, and the Cloak had turned itself into a rather long red scarf with the familiar decorative embroidery on its ends.

"I honestly expected you to be late every time we had something planned," Christine admitted. "You have been remarkably _ not _ late to most of them. Was today rather busy?"

He canted his head from side to side in a vague manner. "One word for it. Nothing world-ending, but something that had to be dealt with."

"Are you allowed to talk about it?" She had been very interested in his so-called cult when she discovered he had "basically become a superhero", which he emphatically denied every time she mentioned it. The cult thing was better.

Stephen waved a hand. "Just a creature that didn't quite belong on Earth that needed to be encouraged back into its natural environment."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Dangerous?"

He deflected. "Almost all my work is dangerous, as you're well aware—"

"_Stephen. _"

He rolled his eyes upwards. "Not overly so. It tried to strangle me, but as you can see," he gestured to himself, "I'm perfectly all right."

Christine moved her narrowed eyes to the red scarf. "Is that why the Cloak is a scarf?" She had found its shapeshifting absolutely fascinating.

"I didn't tell it to become one, if that's what you're asking."

"Let me see your neck."

Stephen huffed and showed her his perfectly untouched neck because, well, glamour. "See? Fine."

The Cloak used an end of its scarf self to thwack him in the arm. _ Ow. _

She eyed the Cloak, then gave him a Look.

He sighed. "It's a little sore, but I assure you, everything is intact. The hyoid bone isn't broken; I already checked."

Christine continued her Look for a moment longer, then finally relented and nodded. "Good. I wish your… job wasn't so dangerous, but I'm glad you're making sure to look after yourself."

"I try," was his dry reply, and thankfully the conversation moved on to catching each other up on various little things within their two very different lives.


End file.
